EPL Hull City Owner Assem Allam "has described supporters protesting against his plan to change the name to Hull Tigers as 'hooligans' and warned he will put the club up for sale if the fans do not accept his authority," according to Richard Rae of the London INDEPENDENT. Allam said that "he would not put one more pound into the club if he felt the majority of supporters did not agree with his policies." Allam added that "displaying banners reading 'City Till I Die' and 'We Are Hull City' distracts the players, prevents other fans watching the game and infringes on the rights of advertisers." Allam said of the perpetrators, "They can die as soon as they want, as long as they leave the club for the majority who just want to watch good football."
Campaign groups opposing the change "have peaceably unfurled and displayed banners after 19 minutes at every home game this season." At the previous home match, against Crystal Palace, "stewards attempted to prevent a banner being displayed before relenting when the situation threatened to become heated." Allam said, "How can you be supporting a club when you distract attention during a game?" He suggested "supporters buy advertising space at the stadium instead" (INDEPENDENT, 12/1). REUTERS' Toby Davis reported the 74-year-old Allam "arrived in Hull as a student in 1968, rescued the club from the brink of bankruptcy in 2010 and has invested" around £35M ($55.9M).
He "changed the name of the club's holding company from Hull City Association Football Club to Hull City Tigers in August."
He believes a "Tigers" brand "would have more of a 'global marketing impact' having previously said he considered the word 'City' to be 'lousy' and 'common'" (REUTERS, 12/1).
MONEY MATTERS: In London, Rae wrote in a separate piece "it is the football club on which Allam has spent by far the largest sum: by last July, he calculates," some £66M ($108M). He has still pumped in a further £38M ($62.2M), "though, money used to buy the players who got Hull promoted last season, pay the necessary uplift in contracts, then bring in and pay the likes of Tom Huddlestone and Jake Livermore to provide a decent chance of staying up." Hence "the need to generate more income, and so the name-change." The "City Till We Die" campaign group, which has "set up a membership scheme aimed at forming a supporters' trust," is asking Allam "to launch a consultation on the issue of the name with all supporters, using the database of 20,000 season-ticket holders" (INDEPENDENT, 12/1).
